Setting aside their usual bickering, South Korean liberal and conservative parties on Thursday vowed to cooperate to help the Seoul government prevail in an escalating trade row with Japan.
 
After a meeting between the parties’ leaders and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Seoul’s presidential office, they announced plans to create a “pan-national” emergency body to respond to tighter Japanese trade controls on certain technology exports to South Korea.
 
The meeting came amid growing concerns in South Korea that Japan’s trade curbs, which could possibly be expanded to hundreds of trade items in coming weeks, would rattle its export-dependent economy.
 
South Korean political leaders urged Japan to immediately withdraw the measures they described as “unjust economic retaliation” that would seriously harm bilateral relations and cooperation.
 
The leaders of conservative parties also called for Moon to take more aggressive diplomatic steps, such as pushing for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or sending a special envoy to Japan.

Earlier on Thursday, South Korea’s central bank lowered its policy rate for the first time in three years to combat a faltering economy that faces further risks created by the trade row with Japan.

“Japan’s export restriction measures are an unjust economic retaliation that violates the order of free trade and seriously damages friendly and mutually beneficial relationships between South Korea and Japan,”  the South Korean parties and presidential Blue House said in a joint statement after the meeting.
 
Moon during the meeting said that a united front between the government and political parties would “send a good message to Japan and increase the negotiation leverage of our government and companies.”

Hwang Kyo-ahn, leader of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, called for Moon to push for a quick meeting with Abe or send high-level special envoys to Tokyo and Washington, a treaty ally with both Asian nations, to help resolve the standoff.
 
“The government doesn’t have concrete plans and is just appealing to the emotions of our people with words. However, words and emotions cannot solve this problem,” Hwang said.  “Core issues should be resolved between the leaders of both countries … I think the president should solve this with a top-down approach.”
 
The dispute erupted earlier this month when Tokyo tightened controls on the exports of photoresists and two other chemicals to South Korean companies that use them to produce semiconductors and display screens for smartphones and TVs.
 
Seoul has accused Tokyo of weaponizing trade to retaliate against South Korean court rulings calling for Japanese companies to compensate aging South Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during World War II, and plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization.
 
Tokyo said the issue has nothing to do with historical issues between the countries and says the materials affected by the export controls can be sent only to trustworthy trading partners. Without presenting specific examples, it has questioned Seoul’s credibility in controlling the exports of arms and items that can be used both for civilian and military purposes.
 
South Korea has rejected the Japanese claims and proposed an inquiry by the United Nations Security Council or another international body on the export controls of both countries.
 
South Korea is also bracing for the possibility that Japan will take further steps by removing it from a 27-country “whitelist” receiving preferential treatment in trade.

Its removal from the list would require Japanese companies to apply for case-by-case approvals for exports to South Korea of hundreds of items deemed sensitive, not just the three materials affected by the trade curbs that took effect July 4. It will also allow Japanese authorities to restrict any export to South Korea when they believe there are security concerns.

“The Japanese government should immediately withdraw its economic retaliation measure and clearly understand that additional measures such as the removal from the whitelist would threaten South Korea-Japan relations and the security cooperation in Northeast Asia,” said Choi Do-ja, spokeswoman of the conservative Bareun Mirae Party.

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From: MeNeedIt

The U.K. will plunge into recession if it leaves the European Union without a divorce deal, with the pound plunging in value and the economy shrinking by 2% in a year, Britain’s official economic watchdog said Thursday.

The Office for Budget Responsibility made its assessment as chances of an economically disruptive no-deal Brexit appear to be rising.  Both men vying to take over next week as Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, say they will lead the U.K. out of the bloc, with or without an agreement on terms.

They claim that Britain can withstand any resulting turbulence, but most economists predict the economic shock would be severe.

The OBR, which provides the U.K. government with independent economic forecasts, said a no-deal Brexit would see “heightened uncertainty and declining confidence deter investment, while higher trade barriers with the EU weigh on exports.”
 
It predicted GDP would fall by 2% by the end of 2020 in a no-deal scenario, and borrowing would be around 30 billion pounds ($37 billion) a year higher from 2020-21 than it forecast in March.

Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31, but Parliament has repeatedly rejected the divorce deal truck between Prime Minister Theresa May and the bloc. Johnson and Hunt, who are vying to replace May as Conservative party leader and prime minister, both say they will leave without an agreement if the EU won’t renegotiate.

The bloc insists it won’t change the 585-page withdrawal agreement, which sets out the terms of Britain’s departure and includes a transition period of almost two years to allow both sides to adjust to their new relationship.

“This document is the only way to leave the EU in an orderly manner,” EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told the BBC in an interview broadcast Thursday.

Three years after British voters narrowly chose to leave the 28-nation EU, it remains stuck in limbo. May announced her resignation last month after failing to win Parliament’s approval for her Brexit deal.
 
Her successor is being chosen by members of the Conservative Party, most of whom are strongly in favor of Brexit and prepared to accept the risks of leaving without a deal. Johnson is the strong favorite to win the contest when the result is announced Tuesday.

He claims that Britain can flourish outside the EU if it has enough optimism and “mojo,” and says a no-deal Brexit will be “vanishingly inexpensive” if the country prepares properly.

Many others are less sanguine.

Treasury chief Philip Hammond, who has warned about the perils of a no-deal Brexit _ and is likely to be fired by the next prime minister _ said “I greatly fear the impact on our economy and our public finances of a no-deal Brexit.

He said the OBR forecast was based on the “most benign version” of a no-deal Brexit, and in all likelihood “the hit would be much greater, the impact would be much harder.”

Meanwhile, the relationship between the British government and the EU has been frayed by years of testy negotiations and allegations of ill-will on both sides.

EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans told a BBC documentary that the British lacked a plan and were “running around like idiots” during the Brexit negotiations. He cited a catchphrase from the classic British sitcom “Dads’ Army”: “Don’t panic!”

Junior U.K. Brexit minister Martin Callanan accused Timmermans of spreading “childish insults” about the British negotiating stance. Quoting another famous riposte from “Dad’s Army,” he said Timmermans was a “stupid boy.”

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From: MeNeedIt

Iranian state television said Thursday forces from the country’s Revolutionary Guard seized a foreign tanker accused of smuggling oil.

The report said the vessel was intercepted Sunday in a section of the Strait of Hormuz south of Iran’s Larak Island with 12 crew members on board.

It said the tanker was involved in smuggling one million liters of fuel, but did not give details about its country of origin.

The seizure comes after the Panamanian-flagged tanker MT Riah, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, disappeared from ship tracking maps in Iranian territorial waters on July 14.

The Revolutionary Guard said it received a distress call from the vessel, which was “later seized with the order from the court as we found out that it was smuggling fuel,” a report said. It said Iranian smugglers intended to transport the fuel to foreign customers.

The seizure comes amid heightened U.S.-Iran tensions, which began to escalate when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal with Iran and world powers last year and imposed stiff sanctions on Iran, including on its oil exports.

Iran has recently exceeded uranium production and enrichment limits in violation of the agreement in an effort to pressure Europe to offer more favorable terms to allow it to sell its crude oil abroad.

The U.S. has also deployed thousands of additional troops, nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets to the Middle East.

Veiled attacks on oil tankers and Iran’s downing of a U.S. military surveillance drone have further fueled concerns of a military conflict in the Persian Gulf region.

An unnamed U.S. defense official told Associated Press earlier this week the U.S. “has suspicions” Iran seized the tanker MT Riah when it turned off its tracker.

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From: MeNeedIt

India’s space agency says it will make a second attempt to launch an unmanned probe to the Moon’s south pole next Monday, July 22.

The launch of the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will take place exactly one week after its first attempt was aborted less than an hour before liftoff due to a “technical snag” on the giant Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark Three rocket.

Chandrayaan, the Sanskrit word for “moon craft,” is designed for a soft landing on the far side of the moon and to send a rover to explore water deposits confirmed by a previous Indian space mission.  

If the $140 million mission is successful, India will become just the fourth nation to pull off a soft landing of a spacecraft on the lunar surface, after the United States — which is observing the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission this week — Russia and China.

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From: MeNeedIt

The lawyer and family of Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who helped the United States track down former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, told VOA that Afridi continues to suffer in prison under dire conditions.

Qamar Nadeem, Afridi’s lawyer, expressed optimism that the fate of his client would be discussed during the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan next week at the White House.

“Dr. Afridi can’t sleep properly, due to harsh conditions and sweltering heat, as there is no window in the cell where he is kept,” Nadeem said. “Imran Khan is visiting the U.S., but if Dr. Afridi remains in pain, then I think the visit won’t be a success.”

Speaking to VOA, Jamil Afridi, Shakil Afridi’s brother, expressed frustration that the doctor’s case has not been resolved in more than eight years.

“President Trump and the U.S. government should have resolved this issue by now,” he told VOA.

Jamal Afridi said he last visited his brother, who he says has become very weak, July 6.

“He cannot rest during the day, nor can he sleep at night. He is in great pain,” he said.

U.S. officials have not said publicly if the two leaders will discuss Afridi’s case. But according to a statement released by the White House last week, both sides will discuss a host of issues, including counterterrorism and joint U.S.-Pakistan efforts to bring stability to the South Asian region.

Pakistani officials, however, did not rule out the possibility of Afridi’s case being raised.

Muhammad Faisal, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson, told VOA that all issues of mutual interest would be discussed between the two leaders.

“I cannot share the details, but all issues will be discussed,” he said.

Some U.S. experts agree.

“This is the type of a thing that you would expect President Trump to push, because you know he wants to be seen as a deal-maker who would want to make a deal,” Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based  Wilson Center, told VOA. “But the question is what the deal would look like.”

Who is Afridi?

Afridi helped the United States find bin Laden in 2011. He was later arrested by Pakistani authorities and has been in prison awaiting trial since then.

He reportedly used a fake vaccination program to try to obtain DNA samples from bin Laden’s family. U.S. officials have claimed Afridi was imprisoned for his role in helping the U.S. But Pakistan disputes that claim, alleging Afridi provided financial support to a local militant group.

At a conference in May that was attended by Pakistanis, U.S. Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said the U.S. cannot ignore the fact that a Pakistani who helped the country find a terrorist is behind bars.

“We have chosen to ignore the fact that OBL [bin Laden] was just down the street from the military academy, but we can’t ignore the one best Pakistani who helped us find this terrorist is behind bars,” Sherman said, referring to Afridi.

Charges and trial

Afridi has not been officially charged with treason for helping the U.S in the bin Laden case. He has reportedly been accused under tribal law for helping militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region. In a tribal court, the law allows authorities to not present the defendant in court and limit the number of appeals.

If Afridi were to be charged with treason in a Pakistani court, he would have the right to public hearings and appeals up to the country’s Supreme Court. This would allow details of the bin Laden operation to be discussed publicly, something the government does not want, according to analysts.

But legal experts told VOA that Pakistan has so far failed to produce evidence against Afridi.

Farhad Afridi, a Pakistani lawyer who is unrelated to Shakil Afridi, maintains that Afridi’s continued imprisonment is unjustified.

“No evidences have been produced before the court regarding the charges leveled against him and under which the conviction of Dr. Shakil Afridi is granted,” the lawyer told VOA.

Swap?

For several years, the media in Pakistan have speculated about a possible swap with the U.S. involving Afridi and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is jailed in the U.S. on terrorism charges.

Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 by a federal jury in Manhattan on charges of trying to kill U.S. government personnel while she was in custody in Afghanistan. She was found guilty of attempted murder and six other charges stemming from a shooting at a police station in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province in 2008.

Experts doubt that such a swap would take place because of the strict U.S. laws pertaining to terrorists.

“I just don’t know if the Trump administration would be willing to swap, with regard to terrorists,” Kugelman said. “But again, you never know. We cannot rule out the possibility that it could be discussed.”

Jamil Afridi claims the civilian government in Pakistan is powerless, and that the fate of his brother can be decided only by the country’s powerful military.

“The army controls the prison, and the prison authorities follow their orders,” he said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.

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From: MeNeedIt

PARIS — French prosecutors want Air France to stand trial for manslaughter in the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that killed all 228 people aboard, a judicial official said Wednesday.  
  
Prosecutors also have asked that the case against Airbus, maker of the doomed aircraft, be dropped for lack of evidence. The official wasn’t authorized to speak about the case and asked to remain anonymous. 
 
Air France Flight 447 left Rio de Janeiro for Paris but crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009. The Accident Investigation Bureau found that external speed sensors were frozen and produced irregular readings on the aircraft, which went into an aerodynamic stall.  
  
A plethora of problems appear to have doomed the flight as it traveled through turbulence. The captain was on a rest break when the emergency arose, the autopilot disengaged and the co-pilots struggled to fly the aircraft manually. 
 
In their final summing up on Friday of the investigation, prosecutors cited negligence and insufficient training that led to chaos in the cockpit.  

Airbus had warned pilots a year earlier about possible incorrect speed readings from the plane’s external sensors, known as Pitot tubes, but changed them only after the crash.  
  
A report last year that was part of the judicial investigation blamed the Flight 447 pilots for failing to apply correct procedures, thus losing control of the aircraft.  
  
A victims group, AF 447 Victim Solidarity, contested the 2018 report, saying it freed Airbus of all responsibility in the accident. 

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From: MeNeedIt

Many college students enter college or university thinking they are ready for the academic challenges ahead.

But many would be wrong, experts say.

Some students feel that gaining admission suggests they are ready for college or university, says Fuji Lozada, director of the John Crosland Jr. Center for Teaching and Learning at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He says the truth is, though, almost every student needs help adjusting to a new academic environment.

The Crosland Center at Davidson is similar to support centers at many schools that are designed to help students achieve. The center trains peer counselors or students to assist other students. By helping others in areas where they might have experience, students strengthen their own understanding of their field of study, Lozada says.

“When students first come to college, they still are in this mode of ‘I’m here to learn by myself,’ ” he says. “But academics is really a team sport.”

Writing is one area where students often struggle. Most American high schools teach students shorter forms of writing, such as a five-paragraph essay form. College professors expect students to be able to write about subjects at much greater length and depth. They expect students to present complex arguments supported by lots of research. Students talented in other disciplines but not college-level writing might find themselves falling behind, says Lozada.

International students may find it difficult to write at the level expected by American professors, even if their general English skills are strong. That is because U.S. schools have strict rules about using outside research. And professors want students to apply critical analysis while examining all research.

Lozada points out that colleges and universities do not want their students to fail. Some students may be unaware their school has support programs and offices like the Crosland Center at Davidson, which are there to help. Others are afraid to admit they need help.

“When we check with students as to why they didn’t come in for tutoring, they assume that nobody else is getting help,” Lozada says. “And so, actually, once they see … that many students are coming … meeting with other students for peer-tutoring; that usually gets them in the door.”

Struggling students should recognize they are having difficulty, he says. They should ask professors for advice on the areas in which they need to improve and then seek out their college’s academic support services.

Lozada adds that one visit to such a center will not immediately solve the problem: Improving writing skills takes time. The same can be said about mathematics, computer science or any other subject.

While about 40% of Davidson students who seek academic support are first-year students, about 13% are students in the final year of their programs, still asking for help with high-level classwork and major projects.

“Even … when I write a piece, I ask a peer or friend to read it and then they critique it,” Lozada said. “That’s the kind of academic experience we want to encourage.”

This story originated in VOA’s Learning English.

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From: MeNeedIt

Composer Hans Zimmer can’t seem to get away from “The Lion King.”

The emotional score has gotten him jobs, his only Oscar and secured him a place in the hearts of children and adults. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to come back when Jon Favreau approached him to revisit the soundtrack for his technologically advanced reimagining of the animated film, which opens nationwide Thursday night.

“I’m always the one saying no to everything,” Zimmer, 61, said. “I suppose I’m the reluctant bride.”

He only agreed to do “The Lion King” a quarter of a century ago because of his daughter. She was 6 at the time, and his movies at that point weren’t exactly child-friendly.

“I couldn’t take her to a Tony Scott bloodbath,” Zimmer said.

He had one stipulation: That it wasn’t going to be a musical.

“I said I don’t want to do a musical, I hate musicals,” Zimmer said. “And they said, we’ll guarantee you this will not become a musical ever.” How it ended up that way is, “another story.”

But it’s not the only way “The Lion King” diverged from his expectations. What he thought was going to be a “nice cartoon” turned into something much darker. The story about a young prince who loses his father hit a nerve for Zimmer, who also lost his father at a young age.

“All that stuff that one had managed to cover up so well, I had to go and open up and actually write from that point,” Zimmer said. “I had to write what it felt like to be a little boy who loses his father.”

And yet Zimmer is always somewhat surprised to find that people have such a connection to it. Terrence Malick only approached him for “The Thin Red Line,” which would earn him another Oscar nomination, because of “The Lion King.”

He remembers being at a dinner with Malick, Werner Herzog and others and overhearing, “The voices of the two great filmmakers passionately arguing with each other which piece in `The Lion King’ they prefer.”

“I’m going, they’re talking about a KIDS movie,” Zimmer said, still slightly baffled and amused. “Terry Malick and Werner Herzog arguing about `The Lion King!”’

And when Pharrell Williams convinced Zimmer to play at Coachella in 2017, he said fine, but that, “The one thing we’re not going to do is `The Lion King’.”

A 23-year-old member of his band told him to get over himself. “It’s the soundtrack of my generation,” the young man declared. Zimmer conceded and had a bit of a revelation in the desert.

“I look out throughout the shambles of a field with all these people and see grown men and women truly touched and I’m realizing it’s not because it’s sentimental but because it’s emotional, it’s the truth, and my band is playing every note with total conviction,” Zimmer said. “[I thought] maybe we can pull this off with an orchestra and maybe because everybody in the orchestra will know the material they will play it with the same sort of passion and conviction.”

That was the convincing he needed. And Favreau had shown him some majestic concept footage of what the film would actually look like.

“He wasn’t just my portal into the music, which is arguably the most important aspect of this film,” Favreau said. “It’s difficult to appreciate just how significant a collaborator he was.”

When it finally got down to recording, he assembled his band and hand-picked orchestra from around the world in Los Angeles. And it turned out to be just as he’d dreamed: An emotional experience.

Zimmer even got to do something rather special this time around. He recorded with a live audience at The Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage where they’ve recorded everything from “Gone With the Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia” to “E.T.” and the most recent “Star Wars” films.

“I wanted it to be a performance. Therefore I needed an audience. I had 102 people in the orchestra and the band. And then I put 20 chairs upfront for the filmmakers who made the movie who actually never get to come to the recording sessions,” Zimmer said with a smile. “It’s the circle of life, or completing a circle or whatever. The force is strong on this!”

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From: MeNeedIt

STATE DEPARTMENT — “My father is a fixer, a bridge-builder, a connector. He knows that a better future is one where Han Chinese and Uighur children are in school together, are friends together and have the same opportunities,” said Jewher Ilham, who pleaded for the release of her father, prominent jailed Uighur scholar and economist Ilham Tohti. 
 
She also petitioned Chinese authorities to release all Uighur girls from so-called re-education camps before Beijing hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics.  
 
Tohti has been serving a life sentence on separatism-related charges since 2014. Chinese authorities accused him of encouraging terrorism and advocating separatism in his lectures, articles and comments to foreign media.
 

22 UN Ambassadors Condemn Chinese Treatment of Uighurs

Concerns were expressed in letter to UN Human Rights Council 

The scholar and economist founded the website Uyghur Online, which is aimed at promoting understanding between Uighurs and Han Chinese. He also has been outspoken about Beijing’s treatment of the minority Muslim Uighurs in the far-western Xinjiang region.  
 
“I have not spoken to him since 2014, and I have not seen him since we were separated at the airport in 2013. We were on our way to Indiana University, where my father was supposed to start a yearlong residency,” Jewher Ilham told participants of the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, hosted by the U.S. State Department on Tuesday.  

U.S. lawmakers’ push
 
The appeal came amid a renewed push from American lawmakers urging China to change how it treats Uighurs in Xinjiang. 
 
“The violations [in Xinjiang] are of such scale, are so big, and the commercial interests are so significant that it sometimes tempers our values in terms of how we should act,” said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Tuesday at the ministerial.  
 
“Unless we are willing to speak out against the violations of religious freedom in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it any other place in the world,” added Pelosi.  
 
The House speaker also called for U.S. sanctions against Chinese Communist Party leaders in Xinjiang, who are responsible for the re-education camps. 
 
More than 1 million Muslim Uighurs have been detained in re-education camps that critics say are aimed at destroying indigenous culture and religious beliefs.  
 
American officials say the United States has stressed to Chinese authorities the importance of differentiating between peaceful dissent and violent extremism. They say Tohti’s arrest “silenced an important Uighur voice that peacefully promoted harmony and understanding among China’s ethnic groups, particularly Uighurs.”  
 
In January 2019, Tohti was nominated by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers for the Nobel Peace Prize.
 
China rejected the nomination, calling Tohti a separatist.  
 
“Ilham Tohti is convicted of dismembering the nation. What he did was meant to split the country, stoke hatred and justify violence and terrorism, which cannot be condoned in any country. The international community should have a clear understanding of this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said this year.  
 

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From: MeNeedIt

Bolivia, which has one of South America’s highest rates of women being killed because of their gender, has declared femicide a national priority and will step up efforts to tackle growing violence, a top government rights official said on Tuesday.

Since January authorities have recorded 73 femicides – the killing of a woman by a man due to her gender – in the highest toll since 2013. The murders amount to one woman killed every two days.

“In terms of the femicide rate, Bolivia is in the top rankings,” said Tania Sanchez, head of the Plurinational Service for Women and Ending Patriarchy at Bolivia’s justice ministry, despite legal protections being in place.

A 2013 law defined femicide as a specific crime and provided tougher sentences for convicted offenders.

“We are not indifferent,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “The national priority is the lives of women, of all ages, and for that reason the president has raised this issue of femicide as the most extreme form (of violence),” Sanchez said.

Emergency Plan

The latest femicide victim was 26-year-old mother Mery Vila, killed last week by her partner who beat her on the head with a hammer.

This week, the government announced a 10-point “emergency plan.”

Worldwide, a third of all women experience physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, according to the U.N. In Bolivia, violence against women is driven by entrenched machismo culture, which tends to blame victims and even condones it.

According to a 2016 national government survey, seven of every 10 women in Bolivia said they had suffered some type of violence inflicted by a partner.

Sanchez said the new plan “takes into account prevention, as well as care to victims and punishing violence, macho violence.”

A commission will also look at increasing government spending on gender violence and prevention, and evaluate various initiatives’ success.

“Funding is insufficient. There’s a great need in the regions,” Sanchez said.

Other measures include obligatory training courses for civil servants and public sector employees on gender violence and prevention.

School and university teachers will also receive training about “the psychological, sexual and physical violence” women and girls face.

The commission will also consider if femicide should be regarded as a crime of lesser humanity.

Widespread Gender Violence

Latin America and the Caribbean have the world’s highest rates of femicide, according to the United Nations.

Some 15 other countries in the region have introduced laws against femicide in recent years.

Victims of femicides in Bolivia and across the region often die at the hands of current or former boyfriends and husbands with a history of domestic abuse, experts say.

“We believe that this increase (in femicides) is related to a patriarchal system that appropriates the bodies and lives of women,” said Violeta Dominguez, head of U.N. Women in Bolivia.

Femicide cases in Bolivia often go unpunished, with victims’ families struggling for justice, Sanchez said.

Of 627 cases recorded since 2013, 288 remain open without a conviction, which Sanchez called “alarming.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales posted on Twitter on Monday “It’s time to end impunity, and tackle problems as a society.”

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From: MeNeedIt

Saudi Arabia’s air force intercepted and destroyed three Yemeni rebel drones before they could reach targets in the southern Saudi cities of Jizan and Abha, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Col. Tukri al-Maliki was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency saying the drones were launched by the Iran-backed rebel Houthis from the northern Yemeni governorate of Amran. Bomb-laden drones launched by Houthis killed a civilian and wounded others at a Saudi airport in Abha in recent weeks.

A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people.

A Yemeni human rights group released a report Tuesday detailing how civilians have suffered greatly in the war.

In the report released in Paris, Mwatana for Human Rights said humanitarian aid had been blocked at a time of impending famine and civilians can no longer move around the country freely or leave. The group documented 74 cases of obstructing aid or access, largely blaming the Houthis.

The group said Saudi coalition airstrikes have targeted schools and hospitals while Houthi forces and coalition proxy forces have tortured and arbitrarily detained dozens.

It said it documented around 150 Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in 11 governorates in 2018 that killed at least 375 civilians, including 165 children, and wounded 427 others, including 172 children.

The report was based on more than 2,000 interviews with Yemenis. The group documented 52 cases of land mines wounding civilians and 150 coalition airstrikes, together killing at least 435 people.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra rejected the demand of a regional governor on Tuesday to cancel within 72 hours the construction permit for a copper mining project that has led to protests.

Residents from the area bordering Southern Copper Corp.’s $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper mine project in the south of Peru, which is the second largest copper producer in the world, began protesting on Monday with a blockade of a portion of Peru’s main coastal highway.

Officials from the southern region of Arequipa said the government had not taken into account the community’s concern that the mining operation would contaminate its water sources and land when it granted a construction permit on July 9.

Arequipa Governor Elmer Caceres called on Vizcarra to cancel the construction permit within three days.

“You cannot cancel [a construction permit]. We have to talk,” Vizcarra said in a public appearance in Lima, responding to a reporter’s question about Caceres’ request.

Vizcarra said the government approved the project when legal requirements were met and that Southern Copper said it would not begin construction until it gains more support from people who live in the area.

Caceres said the community plans to continue its protest while perusing a legal plan to challenge the permit, but did not offer details.

Demonstrations have previously derailed the project when at least six protesters were killed in clashes with police in 2011 and 2015.

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From: MeNeedIt